Ep. #170: Andy Gill of Gang of Four

Andy Gill is a legendary musician, songwriter, and producer who lives in the United Kingdom. Towards the end of the 1970s, Gill co-founded the remarkable post-punk band Gang of Four whose jagged, dance-able, politically outspoken songs influenced one million musicians and earned them a loyal fanbase. Though the band has gone through many members over the past 30 years, Gill has been a constant and, as the only original member, he spearheaded the latest album by Gang of Four. The record is called What Happens Next, it’s out now via Metropolis Records, and the band is on tour now, including a stop at Lee’s Palace in Toronto on March 9. Here, Gill and I discuss his home studio in London, a mandatory mention of the Jesus Lizard on this show, how there’s a bit of Blue on What Happens Next, clear sounds, the song “Obey the Ghost” and the lyric “we’re Facebook friends with celebrities,” collecting each other, electronic or industrial ambient musical tones on this record, James Brown and the Velvet Underground, having no desire to replicate Entertainment! or anything else from the past, when Jon King quit and almost dissolving Gang of Four, the song “First World Citizen” is actually 30 years old, z, a dancing parrot, a one-legged dog that barks at carrots, having multiple singers, King will not return, the song “First World Citizen,” and then we’re in the ether.